Companies are afraid of the cloud

Data from over 200 Pen Tests Shows Most Common Vulnerabilities. Learn more now.

Although using cloud solutions can boost company efficiency, not every business has made the jump to cloud services. In a recent F-Secure survey of companies with up to 500 employees, concern about data security emerged as a key reason why.

45% of companies who don’t use a cloud solution cite lack of control and security issues as the main reason for not being interested in cloud-based services. Among the bigger companies surveyed, that number is higher: 67% for companies with 50 to 249 employees, and 70% for companies with 250-500.

Other business reasons for lack of interest in cloud-based services: 21% of companies cited costs, 13% performance issues and 12% legal liabilities.

“Companies who are afraid of the cloud for security reasons should be aware that a properly designed and managed business cloud service is an extremely secure choice,” says Timo Laaksonen, Vice President of Content Cloud at F-Secure. “Furthermore, a practical example: Say an employee needs to access information on their mobile device to share with a customer. If you don’t provide an easy-to-use, always available online service to do this, they will simply use their personal cloud account or download the information directly to their device. And that is a security risk.”

Of companies that use or are open to using cloud-based solutions, data security is also seen as the most important consideration in choosing a cloud collaboration service. 84% say data security is extremely important, followed by ease of use, and accessibility from anywhere.

52% said location of servers is extremely important, and 43% cited the origin country of the service provider. 27% of companies using cloud say it was the employees, rather than the company itself, who first began using a cloud-based solution for business purposes.